


Art

by Tommyboy



Category: The Sentinel
Genre: Het
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2009-07-03
Updated: 2009-07-03
Packaged: 2019-06-13 03:52:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,189
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15355626
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tommyboy/pseuds/Tommyboy
Summary: Jim has asked Blair to stay away from the loft to have a date in for the evening.  Blair winds up going down memory lane.





	Art

**Author's Note:**

> Note from Elaine, the archivist: this story was originally archived at [Artifact Storage Room 3](https://fanlore.org/wiki/Artifact_Storage_Room_3) and was moved to the AO3 as part of the Open Doors project in 2018. I tried to reach out to all creators about the move and posted announcements, but may not have reached everyone. If you are the creator and would like to claim this work, please contact me using the e-mail address on [Artifact Storage Room 3’s collection profile](http://archiveofourown.org/collections/artifactstorageroom3/profile).

Blair walked through the modern art museum, looking against the brochure and the painting before him. It had been over a year since he had let himself have the luxury of walking through Cascade's Art Museum, CAM. 

It was a closet passion of his. He had taken a few art classes, taking pencil art. Sometime words failed to describe something that a picture could.

He looked at Degas, then on to Cézanne. He sighed, remembering lessons from the past about the painters themselves.

Blair was cocking his head at a Picasso when his cell phone vibrated in his pocket.

"Sandburg," he answered.

"Chief, when do you think you'll be home?"

Blair shifted his arm to look at his watch. It was three and the museum was open till six. "Seven."

"You cooking or bringing?"

"Bringing." Thinking back to his plans to pick up Thai food on the way home.

"Okay, here's the deal. You find yourself a nice sit down restaurant and order for yourself and stay clear till nine."

"Sounds like you have a date," Blair laughed.

"Dinner date at the loft," Jim agreed.

"Must be a sequel, if you're bringing her to the loft."

"Tammi." Jim supplied.

"Standard MO, legs and red hair." Tammi worked as a dispatcher.

"So we got a deal, nine o'clock. If something happens, I'll call you."

"Deal. Later." Blair snapped the cell shut. Well now he had some more time free, maybe he would walk along the art alley to look what was being displayed there.

Blair went outside to the sculpture garden and took his time walking among the works of local artist and Rodin.

Taking his time, he meandered from room to room, admiring a piece that caught his eye, thinking of the technique and period of the piece. He found himself walking through the shop, fingering an item or wishing he had the funds to get a book or two on his favorite artists. Maybe he would make a wish list for Jim for Christmas.

He settled into walking down Fletcher, which led to a pedestrian street that had galleries and small café's and bistros. It was a bohemian section. He had lived in an apartment for a few months while on summer break at Rainer. An upperclassman had been offered a chance to go home but didn't want to give up the apartment, so he got a chance to house sit. He was eighteen when that happened, the summer of his awakening.

He laughed when he walked into the first gallery. He had been there a few times during that summer. Emily Brooks ran the gallery. She was old enough then to be his grandmother. She would invite him for tea and show here the current collection. What he found in her was comfort.

But he also found something else. Emily had two nieces, cousins to each other, which changed his world. One pursued him while the other wanted to use him.

"Blair, Blair Sandburg," an older voice called to him.

Looking over, he found Emily, looking the same she had almost ten years earlier. He opened his arms to hug her, and she copped a feel of his butt. "Em?!" he said in false shock.

"You are more gorgeous now than you were when you hung around here."

Blair blushed. Emily rarely minced words. She told you what she thought.

"Look at that red, I can still get to you."

"Always Emily."

She took him by the arm and started walking him through the gallery. They talked about particular pieces that caught his eye.

When the approached the back, which housed her office and small kitchen, she steered him in and sat him down in a comfortable chair.

"You've done your best to stay away," she told him.

Blair nodded, knowing he had subconsciously stayed away form the bohemian sector, too many memories. "How is Rachel?"

"Wild as ever. She is living in New Mexico, working in a small art colony." Emily served him tea and sat down next to him.

"Sounds like her. And Reyna?"

"Painting. I have some of her work upstairs. You might want to take a look."

They talked over tea, Blair telling her some of his adventures and Emily catching him up on her and the girls.

"Go upstairs while I start closing up down here. Maybe you can escort me to Jonathans for a small dinner before you take off."

Blair wound his way up the metal tornado stairway and walked along the walls that over looked the gallery below. He stopped at one that caught his attention.

Reyna had drawn him, in the center. With swirls all around him she had added the items that had made his summer. Emily hovered nearby, reminding him how close he felt that she was like a grandmother to him. And below, just out of reach was Rachel. Rachel was not shy about her body and did her best to present her self to him at every chance. She had the apartment down from Michaels and she sunbathed in the nude when the weather permitted.

Thought the summer Rachel made him her conquest and by the end of the summer he lost his virginity to the woman from below. Memories came back to him that time, the innocence about him. He was the one that left, moving back into the dorms for the beginning of school, and Michael returning from Hartford.

He returned to the main floor. "Did you see it?"

"Yes."

"Reyna calls it 'Longing.'"

"Appropriate."

Blair walked Emily to the bistro on the corner and ate with her. He checked his watch and found it was a little after ten. Jim hadn't called to tell him to find another place to bunk so he figured it was okay to go home.

He meandered up the stairs and let himself in a little before eleven.

The loft looked like it should be. Jim sat on the couch watching ESPN give updates. Soon he would turn over to the news before heading up to bed.

Jim turned to look at Blair, "Have a nice evening out?"

"You could say that. Was at the CAM when you called. Been awhile since I'd been there. Decided to walk down Fletcher for a bit to eat. Ran into an old friend."

"Must have been a hot date then."

"Date? No, not if you thought about dating your grandmother. I saw an old friend." Blair let his voice fill with melancholy, memories of that summer still settling around him.

Jim cocked his head. "You're giving off a scent Chief."

Blair blushed for the third time that night. "Memories," he tried to explain.

"Must be good."

"One of those life altering moments." And his was on canvas, an eternal memory of that. He wondered how much it was for. He would have to call Emily and ask. "Well, I'm off to bed. No classes tomorrow. Oh. How did the dinner go?"

"Good, she's on late shift, so it was more like a fact finding mission."

"And?"

"Possibilities."

Blair smiled. "Good. See ya in the morning."

"Night Chief." 

****

~ The End ~ 

****

 


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